As our afternoon activity today we went to the Ikuta Shrine Summer Festival, which is one the most famous shrines in Kobe!
今日は生田神社で夏祭りがあり、みんなで行ってきました！

The first thing you need to do when you go to a shrine is wash your hands to cleanse our bodies.
まずは手を洗ってお清めですね。

You throw a 5 yen coin (in Japan, the five yen coin is considered lucky because the pronunciation of ‘five yen’ also means ‘good fortune’ in Japanese) into the wooden box, ring the bell, bow twice, clap your hands twice and then make a wish.
お賽銭箱に五円玉を投げ（日本語の「五円」と「ご縁」は同じ発音で、いいご縁があるように五円玉を投げます）、鈴を鳴らし、お辞儀を2回と拍手を2回（二礼二拍手）したあと、お願い事をします。

After making our wishes, we bought an omikuji, which is a love fortune. At first the paper appears to be blank….
お参りが終わってから、恋みくじを買いました！でもおみくじには何も書かれていません！

But then we headed to the little stream just behind the shrine. Here, we placed the fortunes in to the water. As if by magic the words gradually appeared on the page, telling us various things, such as our lucky colour, a lucky place to meet that someone special, etc.
ところが、神社の裏にある水占いの場所に行って、何も書かれていないおみくじを水に浸すと…なんと文字が浮かび上がってきました！そこには、ラッキーカラーや運命の人に会うことができる場所など、いろいろなことが書かれています。

To finish with, we visited a few little stalls around the entrance of the shrine where we bought flavoured shaved ice to cool off.
最後はみんなでかき氷タイム！今日はとっても暑い日だったので、2倍おいしかったですね！